Happy New Year

by Richard on September 1, 2013

Today’s the day when British Methodism stirs itself from the summer hiatus. Up and down the land there are ministers beginning new appointments but new appointment or not, there’ll be a sense of fresh beginnings as the round of church business gets going once again.

All this means changes for me too. For one thing, I’m no longer a “Methodist Minister in Wales”. My new appointment puts me just over the border into England and sees me returning to pastoral ministry after 5 years with the Training Network. As of today I’m Superintendent of the Shropshire and Marches Circuit, so I’m not anticipating being short of things to do. Even so, a day for fresh beginnings is an ideal opportunity to start again with the blog too: expect to see a lot more life here than there has been over the last several months.

I’m looking forward to worshipping shortly in Richard’s former church, Sketty Methodist (Sketty Methodist and Bethel URC alternate, every other month, for eucharistic worship together). New minister: Revd. Leslie Noon. It being the Methodist New Year and all that, the highlight will be joining hands around the Table and singing “Auld Lang Syne” (nice change from Chuck Wesley), and then getting drunk in the church hall afterwards.

Absolutely. Bomb them into the Stone Age — the philosophy of the venerable Curtis LeMay — seasoned with the perennial wisdom that it’s the only language “they” understand. And if you don’t adopt stance, you’re a fool or a devil.

AR’s visiting of this blog always reminds me of the proverbial village idiot who is forever showing up at the local vicarage because he has nowhere else to go.

Assad is a minority Alawi (sp?) ruler who is trying to hold on to his rule by using chemical warefare.
100,000 Syrians have been killed so far, and radio today said that 7,000,000 (7 MILLION)
have been made homeless by running from the country.

If “that” refers to “you may believe that the most effective sign of care for ordinary Syrians is a willingness to lob high explosives in their direction” (and if it doesn’t, I don’t know what it might be), I got it from you. You’re the one suggesting that those who oppose a military intervention in Syria don’t care.

I don’t disagree that Assad has a horrid regime. But there’s precious little evidence that western missiles would do anything to improve things.

I won’t edit more of your comments: it takes too much time. Pressing the delete button is easier, and that’s what I’ll be doing if you continue to make unnecessary personal comments. If there is a snide tone to anything in this thread, you were the one who introduced it.

“You’re the one suggesting that those who oppose a military intervention in Syria don’t care.”
- I do agree to thinking that, or something similar. It is pretty obvious that Assad does care about the American threat, which if carried out would deter him from future use of chemical weapons. Those who won’t intervene are abandoning innocent people. As a man of religion, I would expect you to believe that when G-d gives a man - or a country - power, he is expected to use it for good. ‘For good’, in this case, would mean detering a dictator from use of chemical weapons (not that Assad’s use of conventional weapons can be condoned).